Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
A camera system in Bristol Township’s notoriously high-crime Bloomsdale-Fleetwing neighborhood has cut incidents in that neighborhood significantly, police have said. Now, Bristol Township officials are planning to implement a similar camera system across the township.
Police officials are working on locations to place the several cameras, for which the municipality has set aside $50,000, according to Township Manager Bill McCauley.
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Acting Chief of Police Lt. John Godzieba told LevittownNow.com department officials are looking at locations for cameras to be paced at for best use . He said the system will be spread out throughout the township and not as concentrated as the current system in the Bloomsdale-Fleetwing section.
McCauley said the township will hopefully be able to roll out the cameras in the near future.
The new camera system, much like the current Bloomsdale-Fleetwing one, will feed back to the township police station on Bath Road. Godzieba said no one will be monitoring it around the clock but all the cameras record and officials will check in on them.
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“We can go back and review what the camera saw,” Godzieba said.
The camera system is one high-tech way Godzieba said his department is working to reduce crime without hiring more officers, which McCauley said in an expensive undertaking.
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While the township’s patrol cars currently do not have in-car dash cameras, Godzieba said that is one thing the department is looking into for the future.
In October 2012, Chief of Police James McAndrews, who is currently out on leave following a fall, said crime in the Bloomsdale-Fleetwing neighborhood has fallen by more than 50 percent since the cameras were installed. The system, which was paid for by a federal grant, featured surveillance cameras every few yards on the neighborhood’s streets and even featured automatic licence plate readers (ALPR.) The ALPRs capture an image of the license plate of every vehicle that enters the neighborhood and runs it against databases of expired, stolen or wanted vehicles.
McCauley said he does not expect much uproar from residents over the new camera system.
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In the 1990s, cities like Philadelphia, New York and Chicago began installing the police surveillance cameras in high-crime sections. Philadelphia officials cited a drop in crime in the areas surrounding the cameras.
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